


charlie x

by espressohno



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Humor, Teen Angst, jim bones and spock all trying to be dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 19:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7653994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espressohno/pseuds/espressohno
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em> “For the past two days he’s either been at my hip or trying to flirt with Janice Rand.” Jim snapped, and Leonard couldn’t help but wonder what it was about this kid that seemed to be driving people insane. “I’m going to lose my mind if I have to listen to him ask me one more ridiculous question like <em>‘Jim, how come Yeoman Rand got mad at me when I slapped her ass?’ ‘Jim, every time I see people laughing, why do I always feel like they’re laughing at me?’ ‘Jim, do you ever feel hungry, all over, when you look at Yeoman Rand?’ ‘Jim, are you mad at me?’ ‘Jim, do people like me?’ ‘Jim, I just want people to like me. Is that normal?’</em> Bones. Stop laughing. Work with me here.” </em>
</p><p>rewrite of the tos episode "charlie x" with the aos crew, post-beyond. the enterprise is assigned to transport a seventeen year old boy from one starbase to another, and looking after an awkward, innocent, angsty teenage boy turns out to be wayyy more work than any of them expected</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_ Captain’s log: stardate 2264.3. Two months into the remainder of our five year mission after the reconstruction of the USS Enterprise. We have completed our patrol mission in the Typhon Expanse without incident. Awaiting further assignment. _

 

-

 

If it had been just four months earlier, Jim would have shut off the recorder and groaned. But there was something about almost losing your entire crew and the Federation’s biggest residential base that made Jim grateful for even the most boring of assignments. Sure, there was almost nothing out in the Typhon Expanse. It had been explored enough by now to rule out any potential threats to a Federation vessel entering it. Now they were just being sent there to see if anything had changed since the last patrol. 

Spoiler alert: nothing had changed. 

Jim figured it was as good a time as any to take a coffee break. Hell, they could put the ship on whatever cruise control function it had and  _ all _ take a coffee break if they wanted. 

“Sulu, you have the conn. I won’t be more than twenty minutes.”

“Affirmative Captain.”

Jim headed to the turbolift, rubbed his eyes. He was about half a week and a few more workouts from sleeping normally again. Until then he would be loading himself with caffeine and focusing all his energy in  _ completing missions without incident _ . 

As luck would have it, the turbolift opened halfway to the mess and Bones walked in. They nodded at each other. 

“How’s it going in sickbay.”

“We’re all bored out of our minds.” 

Bones raised an eyebrow at him, hardly preventing himself from an all-out smirk. Jim smiled.

“That’s good to hear.”

“McKenna’s come down with a head cold. That’s probably the most work we’ll have for the rest of the week.”

“Thousands of years since the invention of the vaccine and we still haven’t beat the common cold.”

“Don’t even get me started.” Bones grumbled

They headed towards the mess, and Jim couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that neither of them had anything to be worried about. Which meant that, naturally, it was about time for something to go wrong on the enterprise. 

 

_ Captain Kirk to the bridge. Repeat, Captain Kirk to the bridge. _

 

Jim and Bones shared a look over their not-quite-regulation coffee mugs, Bones’ with the word  _ DIVA _ printed on it in hot pink and Jim’s with a starfleet insignia that was crudely (but adorably) painted on by Sulu’s daughter during their last leave in Yorktown. 

“Wonder what that could be.” Bones took a long sip.

“I’ve probably been gone too long. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Yeah.”

Jim put up his mug and headed back to the bridge.

 

-

 

“So our mission is to pick up this kid at one base and then drop him off at another?” Sulu asked, following behind Jim to the transporter room.

“Pretty much.”

Turns out Jim was needed on the bridge for a call with the Admiral on duty way out in Starbase 185. There was a boy who had been living there after being found on an escape pod wandering around  deep space, and now that they’d tracked down a relative, they hailed the closest ship to take him to Starbase 5. 

“How does a seventeen year old end up out on Starbase 185?”

“He was the only survivor of a 12-person research mission sent out to deep space in 2250. Apparently he’s been on the base ever since.”

Jim paused outside the door.

“Can you imagine growing up way out here? A starbase with probably no more than twenty five people, all of them adults. This will probably be the most mature seventeen year old we’ve ever seen.”

Sulu shrugged slightly. 

“At least we know he won’t be trouble.”

“Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe it’s not the best idea to move this kid from a twenty person base to a five-hundred person ship.” Jim mumbled, turned around and waited for the transporter room doors to slide open. 

Scotty nodded when he entered and Jim stood at the base of the transporter pad, ready to greet their new passenger. 

“You ever read in the San Francisco history books about a company called Uber?” Sulu said casually.

“The taxi service?”

“Well, they weren’t really taxis, but...I feel like the Federation could use a space equivalent.”

“You’d think after coming face to face with death, the ship’s pilot would be less bitter about his mission as a glorified chauffeur.”

“I’m not bitter at all, Captain.” 

Jim looked at Sulu from the corner of his eye, and while he was good at covering it up, it was clear that he wasn’t exactly thrilled about their new assignment. It would take about two weeks to get from base 185 to base 5, practically a trip from one side of Federation space to the other. The Typhon Expanse was at least somewhat unexplored, making for an interesting patrol, but, if Sulu wanted, he could set the ship on its course and leave it on autopilot until they hit base 5. 

“Go see if Yeoman Rand knows an empty room he can stay in for the next two weeks.”

“Yes sir.” 

Right as the doors swished closed behind Sulu, two figures beamed up to the transporter pad. Jim looked to the one he recognized, Admiral Ramart of base 185. Standing behind her was the kid they were supposed to take with them, who couldn’t be older than seventeen. He was lanky and thin with curly black hair and thick eyebrows that genetics hadn’t let him grow into yet. He watched Jim awkwardly, shoulders slumped and hands wringing together. 

“Admiral Ramart.” Jim said in greeting, and then flashed a smile back to the kid. 

“Captain Kirk, this is Charles Evans, lone survivor of the 2250 deep space research mission.”

Jim looked at the kid and decided that Charles was  _ way _ too formal of a name for this one. 

“Good to meet you Charlie.” He said, holding out his hand as the two of them stepped off the transporter pad. Charlie looked down at his hand and then to Ramart.

“It’s a handshake, Charles. You know what that is.”

Clearly Admiral Ramart had had enough of trying to raise a teenager among all of her other responsibilities. Jim just kept smiling and waited for Charlie to nod and give him a limp handshake. 

“Welcome to the Enterprise.”

“You’ll be here for about two weeks until they take you to live with your aunt and uncle. Until then, I’m sure the Captain can find something for you to do.”

She gave Jim a look, which was far from comforting, and more of a mix of  _ good luck  _ and  _ he’s your problem now _ . But Jim wasn’t worried about looking after a seventeen year old. After all, Ensign Chekov seemed relatively stable after spending his late teens onboard the enterprise. 

They watched as Ramart beamed back to base 185 and Jim led Charlie into the hallway with a hand over his awkward, bony shoulders, the most prominent thought in his mind being  _ what could possibly go wrong? _

 

-

 

“Are you a girl?” Charlie turned back to look at Jim, pointing cautiously at Yeoman Janice Rand. “Is she a girl?”

Jim tried not to laugh as he watched Rand’s smile go from welcoming to overly forced, widening her eyes at Jim as if to say  _ what the fuck are you dragging me into this time.  _

“That’s a girl.” Jim said, and then, just to drag this out for his own entertainment, “Have you never met a girl before?”

“Not a human girl. There aren’t any on Starbase 185. But I’ve read about them. And I’ve watched--videos-”

Jim cleared his throat and Rand just kept looking at him in  _ horror. _

“Well, Yeoman Rand is going to show you to your quarters, Charlie. I’ll come down there in a few hours to show you where we eat dinner, alright?” 

Charlie nodded and Rand reluctantly led him down the hall. Jim totally owed her one, because he watched as the two of them walked together and saw in the way Charlie looked at her that he was already absolutely, completely in love with the first human woman he’d ever met. 

So maybe there were a few things that could go wrong. 


	2. Chapter 2

_ Captain's log: stardate 2264.33. Position: leaving Starbase 185. We have taken aboard a passenger for transport to Starbase 5. Charles Evans, the sole survivor of a research mission failure fourteen years ago. The child, alone from age three, has not only survived, but has grown to intelligent, healthy adolescence. Having grown up on a starbase with a very small population, however, he shows clear signs of social difficulty. Maybe two weeks on a starship full of hundreds of different people will do the kid some good. _

-

 

Leonard had caught himself thinking that sickbay could use more excitement once. A few days ago. And now this must have come as some sort of punishment. 

Jim came into his office at 0800 with a teenager trailing behind him like a puppy. Leonard took one look at them from the game of solitaire he’d been playing and replaying with himself since breakfast, and said,

“I’m busy.”

“Why don’t you give him a check up, Bones? Both of you could use something to do.”

“I said I’m busy.”

“I’ll make it an order.”

Leonard let out a long breath, bared his teeth at the kid in what he hoped was close enough to a smile. 

“Put him on a biobed.”

Jim grinned. 

“Charlie, this is our Chief Medical Officer. Also known as Leonard McCoy. Also known as Bones.”

“Don’t call me Bones.”

Leonard pushed himself up from his desk, feeling like a tired old man and it was only two hours into the day. He watched as Jim led the kid--Charlie, Bones had heard about him earlier--into one of the biobeds. Three years ago Leonard never would have imagined that Jim would be mature enough to be put in charge of a seventeen year old without killing him or poisoning his brain somehow. But now he was nothing but appropriate and charismatic, helping Charlie to get comfortable in his next few weeks of life on a starship. 

“Alright Charlie. I just need to get your vitals and then run a few tests and then you’re free to join Jim up at the bridge.”

Leonard started up the usual bio scans while Charlie shifted on the biobed. The scanners were already picking up readings that he recognized as signs of anxiety, discomfort, confusion, typical teenager shit. Jim crossed his arms and walked up to where Bones stood at the monitor. 

“Or maybe Charlie could, you know, stay down here. Learn the ins and outs of Enterprise’s Medical Bay.”

It took a minute before Leonard realized why Jim had actually brought Charlie down here. 

“Jim, a word?”

He pulled Jim into his office and let the door close behind them. Jim looked about two seconds away from falling to his knees. 

“Please, Bones, just take him for one day, he won’t stop following me around.”

“I swear to god, Jim, if you drop this teenager into my lap-”

“For the past two days he’s either been at my hip or trying to flirt with Janice Rand.” Jim snapped, and Leonard couldn’t help but wonder what it was about this kid that seemed to be driving people insane. “I’m going to lose my mind if I have to listen to him ask me one more ridiculous question like  _ ‘Jim, how come Yeoman Rand got mad at me when I slapped her ass?’ ‘Jim, every time I see people laughing, why do I always feel like they’re laughing at me?’ ‘Jim, do you ever feel hungry, all over, when you look at Yeoman Rand?’ ‘Jim, are you mad at me?’ ‘Jim, do people like me?’ ‘Jim, I just want people to like me. Is that normal?’ _ Bones. Stop laughing. Work with me here.”

Leonard slipped a hand over his face to try and suppress his laughter. 

“Yeah, it sounds like you’ve got a seventeen year old on your hands.”

“If I wanted to be a high school sex ed teacher, I would have done that. I just want to _ do my job. _ ”

“So you’re looking to add me to the list of people Charlie won’t leave alone for the next twelve days.”

Jim sighed, closed his eyes and pinched the top of his nose.

“Yes.”

Leonard thought about it for a minute, took in Jim’s desperation.

“I’ll take him.” He finally said, and Jim pulled him into a stupidly tight hug. “Yeah, yeah. Just until I find someone else to give him to.”

“You’re a lifesaver.”

“I know.”

 

-

 

The silence in sickbay became more than awkward as Leonard took Charlie through a standard physical examination. He’d given his staff the day off that morning, saying that he’d call for them if something came up, so it was just the two of them. 

Leonard had been dreading the point when Charlie became too comfortable around him, because once he did it was like a switch was flipped and suddenly he wouldn’t shut the hell up. 

“Alright. You’re healthy. Congratulations.” Leonard started shutting off the equipment and Charlie sat up, let his long, gangly legs hang off the side of the biobed. 

“Doctor McCoy? Can I ask you something?” He said, and thankfully he was smart enough not to call him  _ Bones _ . Leonard pulled up a chair, tried his best to look welcoming.

“Shoot.” 

“Do you ever feel...hunger? Not for eating something but for...I mean...for touching someone?”

Leonard exhaled through his teeth. He was tempted to call Admiral Ramart and ask her who the hell was put in charge of raising this kid that he doesn’t seem to understand that he’s going through puberty. 

“Yeah. Yeah that’s normal.” Jesus  _ christ, _ Leonard couldn’t believe Jim had been putting up with this for two days already.

“Jim said that I can take care of those feelings myself. What did he mean?”

Leonard just barely prevented himself from making a face, mentally penciling into his agenda that tonight he would be drinking to forget this. 

“Listen, Charlie.” He sighed quietly, dragged a hand down his face, “Masturbation is a healthy way of dealing with sexual urges. Jim probably meant that you should-”

“How do I masturbate? Can you show me?”

_ Jesus fucking christ. _

 

-

 

“Found someone for Charlie to follow around from now on.” Leonard said, taking a shot of tequila and then immediately pouring himself a second one.

Jim smiled at him from across the couch. He’d shown up to Leonard’s quarters after his shift, either knowing Leonard would be drinking or planning on convincing him to drink, or maybe both. 

“In less than a day. I’m impressed, Bones.”

Leonard poured a shot for Jim and they clinked their glasses together before taking them. Jim spluttered a little bit, took a second to catch his breath. 

“Need a chaser there, Jim?”

“I’m good, I’m good. Pour me another.” 

Jim was bluffing a little bit, but Leonard obeyed anyway. 

“So,” Jim breathed, relaxed against the couch cushions, pulling his legs up to set them across Leonard’s lap, “who’d you stick him on.”

Leonard looked over at Jim and smiled.

“Charlie thought it was real fascinating when I told him Spock is half-human.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did.”


	3. Chapter 3

_ Captain’s log: stardate 2264.34. Charles Evans passed his physical examination with flying colors. So far his body appears to be in perfect health after growing up in deep space. He seems to be transitioning to life on a starship easily, and his curiosity… _

 

Jim glanced over to where Charlie was watching Spock work over his shoulder, practically breathing down his neck. If Jim looked closer he could bet Spock’s body was rigid with holding himself back. 

 

_ his curiosity is only increasing as time passes.  _

 

-

 

“Do you ever get to record in the captain’s log, Mr. Spock?” Charlie asked. 

Spock blinked slowly, kept his attention to his station on the bridge. He thought he was being obvious, what with the way he pointedly ignored Charlie even though there was nothing on his monitor that needed to be attended to. Perhaps it was another one of Charlie’s social shortcomings that kept him coming back and trying to start conversations. 

“Seeing as I am not the captain, it would only be logical that I do not record entries into the captain’s log.”

“Actually, Charlie,” Jim said, leaning over his chair to look at them, “Spock’s got a couple entries into the captain’s log from a few years ago. You should ask him to tell you the story sometime.”

“Captain.” Spock felt ashamed at the tone in his voice, which revealed more irritation than he would have liked. 

“There’s a story? You know, back on Starbase 185, we had a pretty big library database. Almost six hundred books on file. I read them all. I can even recite some of them. Do you want to hear one?”

Spock couldn’t seem to think of a polite, yet negative response. He only wished Doctor McCoy was there to say  _ hell no  _ or  _ shut up already _ . And perhaps he also wished that Doctor McCoy hadn’t brought Charlie into his lab the night before to introduce them in the first place. 

Finally he just said, 

“Here on the Enterprise we have over ten thousand documents on file.” 

He hoped that would distract the boy, maybe end up with him holed up in his quarters reading through the ship’s library for the remainder of his stay. It didn’t work.

“Doctor McCoy says you’re half Vulcan and half human. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“That’s so fascinating. Everyone from the base was all of one thing. I’ve never seen someone who comes from two species. But according to Doctor McCoy I haven’t seen very many people at all.”

“Ah.”

“I’m half Kenyan. That’s what Admiral Ramart said. She said my mother was from Kenya. And then she joined Starfleet. And then she met my father who was from San Francisco and then they had me but that didn’t stop her from doing her job and going on a research mission into deep space. She just took me with her.”

“Fascinating.”

“Is your mother human or Vulcan?”

“She was human?”

“Was? Is she dead too?”

Jim cleared his throat loudly and he was turned to look at them again. Spock tried to communicate with his eyes that he was very close to taking whatever actions that were necessary to redirect Charlie to someone else. 

“Al-right, hey, Charlie, uh...why don’t you head down to the mess and I’ll meet you there. I think it’s almost time for the first lunch rotation.”

“Oh, okay.” 

Charlie couldn’t seem to walk quick enough as he finally, finally left Spock’s station and made his way to the turbolift. Spock slowly let the muscles in his body relax once the turbolift door closed behind him. 

Jim gave him a concerned look and walked over to his station, leaned close enough that their conversation could be made private.

“Hey, Spock, I’m sorry about that.”

“There is nothing for you to be concerned about, Captain. He is merely exhibiting very extreme signs of...social ineptitude.”

Jim laughed through his nose.

“Yeah, you’ve got that right.”

“Captain, if you could-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find someone else for him to talk to.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Lieutenant Uhura,” Jim said, louder this time, as he stepped away from Spock, “you’re East African too, aren’t you?”

Spock could just barely hear, too busy with trying to calm himself back down, Nyota saying  _ nice try, Jim _ and Jim sighing as he headed down to take the next shift as Charlie’s guardian. 

 

-

 

Charlie sat across the table from Jim, slumped over like he knew he must have done something wrong. 

“Did I make Mr. Spock mad just then?” He asked, and Jim felt an odd twist in his chest of something paternal and maybe a little bit endeared by this kid. 

“No, he’s alright. But what you said was a little insensitive, Charlie.”

“I’m sorry. Could you tell Mr. Spock that I’m sorry?”

Jim rested his chin on his hand, pushed the food around on his plate, and thought about how he should be reacting to this situation. It was exhausting, having to be so cautious in how he talked to Charlie, knowing that every interaction was essentially a social lesson for him. 

“The right thing to do would be to go and apologize to Mr. Spock yourself.”

“What do I say?”

“Well,” Jim set his fork down and leaned back in his chair, “Something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry for what I said this morning, it was insensitive of me.’ and then...actually...you should ask Mr. Spock to show you Doctor McCoy’s quarters. He’s got some real cool stuff.”

Charlie nodded in understanding and Jim smiled. 

It was mean of him, really, to pass the buck twice in one day, but he’d laughed himself to tears the night before when he found out that Bones had given Charlie an impromptu lesson on masturbation and Jim decided then that he needed more of that kind of laughter in his life. 

So he was going to do the mature thing, which was having Charlie apologize to Spock, and then the immature thing, which was having Spock send Charlie right to Bones’ door. 


	4. Chapter 4

_ Captain’s log: stardate 2264.37. Position: halfway to our destination. Our passenger Charlie seems to be having fun on the ship, and has especially bonded with Doctor McCoy, Commander Spock, and myself. It has been a great exercise for the three of us in patience as he slowly adapts to a more social and diverse living space.  _

 

-

 

Leonard was surprised with himself. After he’d been assigned to what Jim had taken to calling  _ babysitting duty _ for the third time that week, he’d made it almost five hours without having to give Charlie another puberty lesson or adding to the number of shots he needed to take at the end of the day. 

He and Charlie were eating dinner--earlier than Leonard would like, but Charlie seemed to get hungry literally  _ every twenty minutes _ . Leonard was at least glad that  _ eating  _ and _ talking _ seemed to be mutually exclusive. 

Charlie was eating silently and not-annoyingly when suddenly his eyes went wide and he covered half his face with his free hand. Leonard knew what that meant. He knew, but he was still going to choose to be in denial about it.

“There she is.” Charlie whispered harshly, and Leonard wanted to roll his eyes.

He played dumb, turned his head a little bit and saw Janice Rand on the other side of the mess making herself a cup of coffee. When he turned back Charlie was staring at her like she was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. 

Sure, Leonard would admit that Yeoman Rand was lovely. Straight, blonde hair that she always liked to braid in different ways, big eyes, a pretty, always friendly-looking face. To Leonard, her most beautiful trait, however, was her ability to tolerate other people’s bullshit. 

And boy, was she getting a lot of bullshit with Charlie around. Not only from Charlie’s ineffective and indefinite flirting, but from the way everyone seemed to notice and then tease her about it. 

“Isn’t she the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen, Doctor McCoy?”

“She’s not a girl, Charlie, she’s a woman. And she’s too old for you.”

Charlie, in most everything he did, was very clearly a teenager. Especially when he decided when he would and would not listen to the adults in his life. 

“Do you think she likes me? I really want her to like me.”

“Listen, Charlie,” Leonard pushed his plate to the side, took a deep breath, “I’m sure she likes you. As a friend.”

“I want her to like me as more than a friend.” Charlie said, bordering on too loud. 

“Well, that’s not for you to decide, kid. And you have to respect her even if she doesn’t like you the way you want her to, otherwise she won’t even want to be friends with you.”

Charlie sighed and dropped his head to the table. He whined, quietly, for about thirty straight seconds, and if he was blonde and a few years older this scene would be straight out of Leonard’s memory, of hungover breakfasts with Jim back at the academy. He realized then that he was probably perfectly equipped to handle this kid, at least more so than the other two. 

“Wait, she’s leaving. Where is she going.”

Apparently Charlie had turned his head to the side and opened his eyes again so he could continue watching Janice in a way that was half-pathetic and completely creepy. 

“How should I know?”

“Can we follow her?”

“Listen to yourself, kid.”

“Oh. Am I being creepy again, like you said.”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

Charlie’s face fell, and as much as Leonard wanted to keep Charlie as far away from Janice as possible, for Janice’s sake, he recognized that face of sad, desperate, unrequited first love. He figured he may as well do  _ something.  _

“She should be off her shift soon. Why don’t we see if she’ll meet us in the rec room later.”

“Really?” Charlie sat up so fast that Leonard could see it in his eyes when his vision went spotty.

“Take it down a notch. Yes, really.” Leonard spotted Janice on her way out of the mess and called out to her, “Hey, Janice! Wait up a second.”

They put up their dinner trays and met Janice over by the doorway. 

“What is it, Leonard?” Her voice sounded perfectly friendly, and she was smiling, but the rest of her face had very clear signs of  _ you better not be doing what I think you’re doing. _ Leonard didn’t need to look over to Charlie to know that he was full-on staring at her again. 

“I’m going to show Charlie the rec room tonight. I thought you might want to meet us there. Play cards or something.”

“Hmm.” She said, fake smile still there and somewhat believable. God, Leonard envied her sometimes. 

“Leonard, could I speak with you for a minute? Alone.”

Leonard gave Charlie a reassuring nod and stepped into the hallway with Janice, followed her a few yards until she turned around angrily. This would be the second time Leonard witnessed somebody snap from impatience with this kid, but he was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

“Listen, the three of you have  _ one _ job as Charlie’s  _ temporary dads, _ and that’s to keep this puppy away from me. I have been the target of more terrible, awkward flirting in the past seven days than I ever was when I was actually a teenager. I don’t care what you do with him. You could walk him through the entire ship and introduce him to every other female officer. You could give him a sedative, put him in a coma for all I care, but I am this close, Leonard McCoy,  _ this. Close. _ To filing an HR violation.”

Janice took a step back as she settled back down, took a slow sip of her coffee. Leonard figured he was safe to speak again after a minute. 

“We’ve tried everything to discourage his crush on you, Janice, and it’s not working. At least give us maybe two hours in the rec room, I promise I won’t leave you two alone. He just wants to spend time with you.”

“Leonard, I swear to god.”

“One hour.”

Janice took a slow, deep breath. 

“Fine.”

“Thank you. I owe you one.”

“All three of you owe me one.” She said, and walked off down the hall before Leonard could respond. 

He begrudgingly made his way back to where he’d left Charlie inside the mess. Leonard was expecting him to have found something to do, maybe even to have walked off somewhere, but the doors opened to reveal that he was still standing in the same place, waiting for Leonard and Janice to come back. 

“Did she say yes?” He asked, looking around as if Janice would show up, too. 

“Yeah. In a little bit we’ll go down there and the three of us will...hang out. As  _ friends _ .”

At this point Leonard decided that Charlie just didn’t know what the word _ friend  _ meant. When he heard the news he was beaming with excitement, practically vibrating with it. Leonard needed a break. Maybe even a nap. 

“Hey,” he said, “did you know Jim’s got this secret hiding place on the ship that he likes to go to after his shifts? It’s got a great view. I bet he’s there now.”

“Where is it?” Charlie asked, and Leonard felt a sick sort of pleasure. 

“Why, I’ll show you.”

 

-

 

Jim and Spock showed up to Leonard’s quarters the next night within less than five minutes of each other, and apparently without having planned it at all. 

Jim was sprawled out on Leonard’s couch, enjoying the silence of Leonard’s quarters as much as he was the whiskey he gave him. When the door opened and Spock let himself inside. Leonard just looked to Jim and then to Spock and said, 

“I think I’ve got something that’ll work for you.”

He searched through his definitely-not-Starfleet-regulation liquor cabinet while Jim made room for Spock to join him on the couch. 

Once everyone was seated, Jim and Spock on the couch and Leonard across from them on the coffee table, all of them a couple drinks in, he figured he’d start. 

“Charlie was trying to show Yeoman Rand some card tricks last night in the rec room. He messed up and his cards went flying every which way. Including in Janice’s face.”

“Classic.” Jim said, leaning over to the coffee table so he could refill his glass. 

“Everyone in the room laughed, obviously. Even Janice herself laughed it off. Charlie just got up and stormed out. And then when I finally found him in the hallways, he was all but crying in a corner.”

“Mmhm. Similar thing happened today. I took him to the gym, taught him some combat, and it was actually going pretty well, until he tripped over himself and the whole room was laughing. He was acting like it was the end of the world.”

“He is a child, surrounded by adults. He wants to be an adult.” 

The main sign that Spock was getting hammered was that he started to speak slower. And he flushed a little bit, the tips of his cheeks and ears turning green. Even after all this time it was really fucking weird to witness. 

“Well he’s not.” Leonard said, downed his own whisky in one sip. 

“It appears that...being reminded of that fact, Leonard, is what’s causing these emotional reactions.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I think he’s just overstimulated.” Jim said, sounding breathy and probably full-on drunk. This was what became of their friendship, only one week after this teenager had shown up and loaded them with questions and responsibilities and  _ work _ . And now Spock was here, too, to join in on their little liquor-fueled therapy sessions. 

“I mean, think about it. This kid spends fourteen years with the same twenty or so people who have known him his whole life. He’s never had to worry about first impressions and making friends. And now it’s all hitting him. He just wants to be liked.”

“I haven’t had enough contact with human teenagers to...fully evaluate their motivations...but it seems that popularity and sexual contact are his primary objectives.”

“Well, I’m not gonna tell you you’re wrong, there.” Leonard poured himself another glass, smiled a little when both Spock and Jim reached out their own glasses for refills. 

“Wait a minute.” Jim lifted his head up, “Who was with him last? Do we know where he is?”

“He wasn’t with me.” Leonard said. 

“Me neither. Spock?”

“I had him for most of this afternoon.”

“What did you do with him? Oh, god, tell me we didn’t lose our kid. It’s been one week. Tell me you didn’t lose him.”

“Stop getting paranoid, Jim.” Leonard kicked him on the shin lightly and the two of them looked to Spock. 

“I told Charlie that...when Ensign Chekov was first assigned to the Enterprise, he was also seventeen years old. And then I...directed him...to the Ensign’s quarters.”

“You two-faced bitch.” Jim said, laughed, dropped his head back onto the end of the couch. 

“You stuck him on Chekov. Spock, that’s genius.”

“Thank you, Leonard.” Spock was almost smiling at him, which wouldn’t be the first time, but Leonard still found it kinda spooky. He wasn’t really thinking about that, though. Mostly he was thinking about how Chekov, the perfect person for Charlie to follow around, had been right in front of his eyes this whole time and he’d completely missed it. 

“Why the hell didn’t I think of that before.”


	5. Chapter 5

_ Captain’s log: stardate 2264.314. Position: approaching Starbase 5. Charlie will soon be in the custody of his aunt and uncle. During his second week on the Enterprise, Charlie has formed another strong, protegé type bond with Ensign Chekov. Overall I can say that after we drop him off at base 5, it’s clear that the crew of the Enterprise will definitely be feeling Charlie’s absence.  _

 

-

 

Chekov shot Jim a look from the helm, where Charlie was sitting on the floor next to his seat and alternating between staring out the window and asking Chekov a million and one questions. Which, after a week, Jim would have expected Charlie to start running out of those by now. 

Similar to how Spock reacted, Chekov’s responses became shorter and shorter. Jim at least gave him a little credit for the fact that he was trying to not let his voice get snappy. 

“Is Russia cold?”

“Yes.”

“Colder than a refrigerator? Like the big ones they have at base 185 that you can walk inside?”

“Yes.”

“Your accent is so interesting.”

“You’ve told me.”

“My mother had an accent. I could hear it on the tapes. There were tapes in the memory of my escape pod. But she was from Kenya, which isn’t very close to Russia. Russia is probably much colder, too.”

“Uh huh.”

“How do you pronounce your name again?”

“Pavel. Pa-vul. It’s very simple.”

“Pavel.”

“You can call me Ensign Chekov.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes passed, with Charlie just watching as the Enterprise moved quickly through space. They were in a more charted area, now. Every once in awhile they passed a planet or a starbase or another ship. Charlie watched it all with enough awe and curiosity that Jim almost forgot how tiring the kid was to be around. If he could only stay quiet for the rest of the day, then maybe, maybe he could leave on a positive note. 

“Hey, Pavel?” Charlie asked, and Jim had to stifle a laugh at how Chekov’s shoulders seized up. 

“ _ What. _ ”

“Are you mad at me?”

Sulu snorted and Jim watched Chekov share a look with him, and then turn back to Jim, saying as best as he could with his facial expression that _ I cannot take one more second of this.  _

 

-

 

“Man, I’m gonna miss that kid.” Sulu crossed his arms over his chest. They were all watching from the loading deck as Charlie was reunited with his aunt and uncle on base 5. 

“I’m not.” Chekov said. 

“Me neither.” Bones added. 

“I find myself grateful for the brevity of his stay.” Spock said, and Jim smiled, shook his head at how much this kid had turned the ship on its head in just two weeks. 

“Is it too early to put in a shore leave request?” 

“Already, Bones? Are you running out of alcohol?”

“Not for me, for Janice.” Bones said, “God knows she deserves it.”

Jim thought for a minute, watched Charlie give cautious hugs to his aunt and uncle. The two of them were older, probably not ready for the oncoming storm that was seventeen-year-old Charles Evans. Jim silently wished the both of them luck, and when Charlie looked back he smiled, waved, elbowed Bones in the side to wave as well. 

Charlie grinned, his smile taking up almost half of his young face. 

Once he started walking away, heading to his new home, they all turned around and walked back onto the ship. 

“I think I’ll put in that request. For Janice. And for you, too, Pavel.”

“You assholes left me with him for six days.” Chekov grumbled, and Jim just laughed as he led his crew, all of them feeling like they’d aged ten years in the past two weeks. 

He’d always thought that the crew of the Enterprise could handle anything, especially after the Yorktown incident, but apparently none of them had been ready to deal with teenage angst. 

 

-

 

_ end.  _


End file.
